Absorbent articles, such as absorbent pads for light incontinence that are used by being attached to the inner sides of disposable diapers conventionally use absorbent sheets produced by sandwiching and fixing particles of a highly absorbent resin or the like between two sheet members of a nonwoven fabric or the like. In manufacturing such absorbent sheets, particles of the highly absorbent resin are supplied onto one sheet member that is conveyed at a constant speed, and then the other sheet member is layered on and bonded to the one sheet member.
An absorbent-article sheet member manufacturing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-17563 (Document 1) includes a cylinder part in which a plurality of concave portions to be filled with highly absorbent resin particles are formed in the outer surface, a first sheet conveying roller for conveying a first sheet member in the vicinity of the lowermost part of the cylinder part, and a second sheet conveying roller that is disposed forward of the lowermost part of the cylinder part in the rotation direction and is for conveying a second sheet member and layering the second sheet member on the first sheer member. In the apparatus, particles are ejected from concave portions that pass the vicinity of the lowermost part of the cylinder part, and some of the ejected particles collide with the second sheet member on the second sheet conveying roller and then fall on the first sheet member. The caster surface of the second sheet conveying roller has a plurality of grooves extending fully circumferentially. These grooves absorb the impact of particles that collide with the second sheet member on the second sheet conveying roller, thus suppressing scattering of particles in the surroundings.
With the absorbent-article sheet member manufacturing apparatus of Document 1, there are cases in which particles that have collided with the second sheet member on the second sheet conveying roller bounce back upwardly or laterally and scatter around the first sheet member and the second sheet member. In particular, particles that have collided with the second sheet member at positions higher than the central axis of the second sheet conveying roller are more likely to bounce back to positions higher than where they collided and scatter in the surroundings.